The material
These are not watercolours on a flat sheet of paper, framed behind glass. The physical construction is the point: a handmade landscape for a single pigment to settle, catch, and separate.
Historically, watercolour has been confined to paper and placed behind glass. That tradition protects the medium. It also flattens it, and it holds the viewer at a distance.
This collection lifts watercolour onto canvas. Acid-free tissue is applied first, then layers of watercolour ground. Pigment is allowed to pool in the creases and catch on the ridges. The finished work is sealed with archival wax, so the surface can remain unglazed — 3D in direct contact with the room.
Transparent watercolour lets light pass through the mineral particles, strike the white ground, and return. The graphic shapes glow from within.
The friction of the series is this: a disciplined, four-tone architecture delivered through a luminous medium that cannot be captured accurately with photographs. It simply has to be viewed in person.
01 · Tissue
Acid-free tissue paper is applied directly to canvas with a layer of acid-free PVA glue to prevent yellowing over time.
Random creases, ridges and valleys become the physical foundation of every portrait. That texture is wrapped around all four edges onto the rear of the stretcher bars, so the object is complete from every side.
The surface is not a backdrop. It is the first structure of the work.
02 · Ground
Watercolour ground is applied in three layers with a roller to ensure even more texture covering the tissue paper.
It creates a receptive, brilliant white surface that the watercolour can grip to without erasing the handmade topography underneath.
Light will later pass through the pigment and bounce from this ground — the source of the work’s luminosity.
03 · Pigment
Each portrait is executed in a single professional pigment.
The visual depth of the painting depends entirely on that pigment’s personality — how it granulates, oxidises, splits, or holds together — and on the unpredictable way it meets the textured ground.
Watercolour ground is almost non-absorbent, so the pigment sits on the surface ensuring a vibrancy, an intensity not considered usual with watercolour.
The hanging order of the exhibition follows these pigment relationships: a chromatic sequence, not a political one.
04 · Application
Unlike working on paper where subsequent wet washes can be glazed over dried layers, watercolour on canvas allows no second wet pass. The non-absorbent ground means any additional wet paint instantly reactivates and disturbs the layer beneath, blending into it rather than glazing. The entire wet value architecture must be established in a single, uncompromising pass; only subsequent dry-brushing can touch the surface without lifting the paint.
Working out value boundaries is mapping by hand—a strict four-tone economy of form tested to the limit of how much can be stripped away while the subject remains unmistakable. Within that single wet window, the pigment’s raw chemistry takes command. Heavy mineral sediment settles into the deep valleys, while lighter particles are coaxed across the ridges, encouraging the dramatic granulation and oxidation these pigments are capable of.
That single-pass settling mirrors the journeys themselves: decisive, permanent, and entirely without retreat.
05 · Finishing
Each completed portrait is sealed with three layers of Jacquard Dorland’s Museum-grade Archival Wax.
The coating forms a durable, moisture-resistant barrier against smudging and environmental damage without flattening the texture beneath.
A light buff brings the surface to a slight sheen, but not enough to feel like there is a barrier between you and the artwork.
The works sit in white timber floating frames handmade by the artist. A shadow gap leaves the wrapped, pigmented edges visible — the physical boundary of the object kept honest.
Visit the Gallery
When viewed in person - they are simply 'more'.
On a screen, these works register as flat graphic shapes.
In the room, light moves through transparent colour, hits the white ground, and returns. The ridges catch paint; the valleys hold it. That is why a gallery visit, and a close-up on these pages, matter more than a single photograph of the whole face.
Each portrait page includes a detail view for this reason. Scan the wall label in the gallery, and the digital portal should feel like stepping closer — not like leaving the exhibition for a website.
The artist’s vision